When the Water Recedes
by Kisuru-chan
Summary: The beach is an innocent place only on the surface. It's just another day at the beach for palossand lurking about. Creepy one shot.


**A/N:** Written as a Trick or Treat 2017 exchange gift for CoaxionUnlimited.

-()-

"Wow, what a pretty sandcastle!"

Stirred from its slumber, Palossand shifted in the sand and scooted across the grains. Loud waves crashed against the beach shore, and the first cries of the morning echoed along the rows of humans and pokemon coming out for a vacation. After all, it was shaping up to be a calm summer day.

The boy's eyes sparkled. He walked around palossand and poked at the pink and blue seashells around its body. Despite being a spirit, it tickled, and palossand laughed.

"You dummy, it's not a sandcastle," a girl scolded, coming up from behind him. She put her hands on her hips and nodded. "It's a pokemon. Look at its face! It has eyes and everything!"

The boy examined the palossand. His eyes went wide as palossand waved its towers in greeting. He stepped back and stumbled back in realization. "Whoah, you're right! Cool!"

Huffing, the girl pulled the boy by the arm, and she set them to work on a real sandcastle. But palossand wasn't entertained by that and its attention wavered. It reached out for the boy's eager wavelengths and pulled the little bit of energy it could manage before he was out of reach. It could have drained their energy more, but palossand had plenty of time for that.

After steeling itself for another hard day draining humans and pokemon of their lifeforce, palossand wandered. Sometimes humans stepped on it and kicked and shrieked in surprise when palossand groaned at them, the hole in its body for a mouth growing in a giant and angry "O' shape. That was the downfall of moving around and being a sandcastle no one noticed.

"Watch where you're going," a woman snapped. She stepped away and spread her blanket on a perfect spot near the water.

But palossand didn't listen. It drained her energy, too, pulling on her lifeforce; the crystalline energy flowed towards it and it gulped it right up. The woman's expression went dull and she fell forward on the blanket. Yes, her vitality was good, and no one had noticed—she probably just thought it was a pokemon inside the sandcastle causing trouble. That was the thing about an innocent sandcastle, nobody expected anything. But she was okay because the point was not to hurt her badly. Palossand liked to be less conspicuous so no one would be the wiser.

Where palossand were careless, this palossand liked to be neat and tidy. Sometimes, though, it just couldn't help itself… and things happened. But palossand was in a good mood today!

Palossand continued on its merry way. It skirted along its merry way near the sea line, inching by second by second. So many targets on the beach… Suddenly, a big tide washed over its head, and palossand's seashells and sand were dragged into the ocean. Its sandcastle body fell apart and left it exposed.

Palossand dived under the sand so it wouldn't be seen. Complications like this happened regularly. It couldn't always be helped. Beady eyes peered up over the curl of the sand, and palossand honed in on the children from earlier. They had not accomplished much on their build a sandcastle adventure; the girl was patting down a tower while the boy was building up a mound of sand and poking in windows or other holes.

"Yours looks stupid," the girl told him, sticking out her tongue.

The boy glared. "I'm trying! I'm just not good at this stuff!"

A man approached them and knelt down. "Don't be mean to your brother," he warned the girl. "Anyway, I can help. I'm an award winning sandcastle builder! Didn't I tell you both?"

The girl and boy shook their heads, instantly captivated.

The man grinned and started to shape up the sandcastle. He carefully sculpted out the tower and its ridges, as well as a lookout tower. He helped the boy with making sturdy walls.

Perfect! Absolutely perfect! Palossand was in love with it!

Palossand drifted closer. Usually, it wasn't this lucky to get a sandcastle to hide in for free, but this sandcastle was—

A volleyball smashed into the sandcastle. Everything crumbled and the whole thing fell, piling over to the side. The kids looked at it mournfully. The man scratched the back of his neck.

"Sorry!" A teenager came over and retrieved the ball. "We didn't mean to do that, the wind caught the ball, and…"

Palossand was angry. A beautiful sandcastle, ruined! It wanted to take their lifeforce, too, but the teenager run back to join their volleyball friends at the net before it could do that.

The man started to get up to his feet, and the kids looked downtrodden, unwilling to keep building even though they had been understanding. "Let's get something to eat," the man said.

Palossand panicked, reaching out with its powers to make him fall back down. The man dropped to his knee again. Palossand _needed_ a good sandcastle. He was not allowed to leave! The man's eyes dulled a bit. The kids looked concerned, but he once again encouraged them to build another sandcastle with gusto, and the kids were more impressed with their second attempt. They even used pink and blue seashells found on the beach—palossand hoped that was in memory of seeing it earlier.

When they left, palossand dived into the sandcastle. It sighed in relief and felt right at home. Forcing humans to do its dirty work was hard, but it wasn't like palossand could build the sandcastle itself. It didn't have the hands or skill to do so!

Palossand glanced over the beach. It had absorbed plenty of energy and felt energized. Many people were on their blankets or suntanning at this hour, which would give palossand more space to do as it pleased as it passed them. Looking up at the top of the beach, it noticed the ice cream chop in the distance. Food, the human had said. That was a very good idea, and palossand would get away from the sea line for a while.

Palossand started to crawl towards the ice cream stand.


End file.
